ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime: The New iPad Killer?
Asustek announced the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime convertible tablet on Nov. 9.
Powered by Nvidia's Tegra 3 quad-core processor, the Eee Pad Transformer Prime is the first in a new generation of quad-core chip tablets geared for graphics gaming and multimedia tablet applications, without plundering the battery life.
The 0.33 inch thick slate tablet features a 10.1-inch Corning Gorilla glass touch screen with 178-degree viewing angle, a lightweight brushed metal design, a high-definition 8-megapixel rear auto-focus camera with LED flash and a front facing 1.2 megapixel camera. The tablet weighs only 1.29 pounds.
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The Asus Eee Pad Transformer 2 specifications were revealed at last month’s AsiaD Conference in Hong Kong.
The Prime packages with an optional dock and has a port to connect the keyboard for easy conversion of the tablet into a PC for heavy-duty use. It has 12 hours of battery life, and supports 18 hours of dock life. Running on the Android 3.2 Honeycomb operating system, it will be upgradeable to the new Ice Cream Sandwich firmware.
Its specifications include 1 GB of RAM, a microSD card slot, audio jack, and Micro-HDMI port, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi support, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a gyroscope, and GPS. The mobile dock will include a USB port and an extra SD card slot.
“All I have to say is that I am getting a tablet in the coming weeks,” said one anxious commentator on SlashGear. “Which one that is, I am not sure. The Transformer Prime with the Tegra 3 is extremely intriguing. I have never liked Apple products, but the iPad 2 is hard to argue.”
“Unfortunately for ASUS, consumers aren't going to care that it has a quad-core. It takes a lot more than raw processing power to sell a tablet. So, what will consumers get? Twice the power, half the battery life?” said another SlashGear member. “Let's see how many of those Transformer Prime's they're able to sell and if they can manage to keep the price reasonable.”
"We'll have to wait a few weeks to get an idea of how the Transformer Prime actually functions in a real-world environment, but on paper at least, Asus seems to be making all the right moves,” said CNET's Eric Franklin.
